¹⁴May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

Last week I hosted out of town guests. We had a great time together but as the day approached for my guests to return to their homes, some anxiety surfaced.

You see, the weather had turned a bit nasty across the country. In my hometown, there was a foot of new snow. Other places were getting ice, wind and rain. Flights were cancelled going to various parts of the country and since my guests were going four different directions, we watched the updates carefully.

One of my guests was particularly concerned about how much turbulence the weather might create. I noticed she was looking at her weather app and the colors splayed across the area her flight would take her. Then I noticed she was not only looking at the area between where we were and her destination, but she was looking at the entire world. She showed us the weather over South America. I knew I needed to say something.

I gently reminded her that she was filling her mind with information that she was unable to process because she didn’t have the knowledge to make sense of it. While I can see what the weather man says might happen on the ground, I don’t have the ability to take that information and know how it impacts the air streams at 34,000 feet. I encouraged her to keep her mind fixed on what she knows to be true rather allowing her imagination to paint a worst case scenario.

Later that day I read a reminder that if you can worry, you can meditate. Worry is focusing, ruminating on the worst case scenario and often on what the enemy wants me to believe. And we know that he wants to steal, kill and destroy. He uses whatever methods possible so even telling us that we have knowledge we don’t, like how air streams impact flight paths of airliners.

When I dropped my guest off at the airport, my last words to her were, “Keep your mind fixed on what is true. You are nestled in the hands of God and he is carrying you. He will provide for you no matter what your flight is like!” She reported later that she slept most of the way home.

I don’t know what you are fixating on today. Likely, it isn’t safety while flying. It might be your finances, sickness, children, marriage, loneliness, isolation — whatever is tapping on the door of your mind. Remember, your thoughts follow your words. The psalmist asked that the Lord would make the words of his mouth AND the meditation of his heart pleasing!

If your thoughts are troubling to you, listen to the words coming out of your mouth. Are your words expressing truth and trust in the Father? If not, change that first.